


Son of Shadows, Son of Angels

by Eldritch_Exile



Series: Ignis Aurum Probat (Shadowhunter au) [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Shadowhunter AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-15 22:02:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16072229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eldritch_Exile/pseuds/Eldritch_Exile
Summary: Damian was heir to his Grandfather's court. He was heir to his father's legacy.Damian was a shadowhunter. He was an Unseelie fae.Their choices, Damian decides, should always belong to them.





	Son of Shadows, Son of Angels

 

Being a shadowhunter wasn’t much different from being in his grandfather’s court. That was something Damian decided on his first week in his father’s institute. 

He was still nothing to scoff at. His bloodline was still worthy of honour and glory. The Waynes were a prominent Shadowhunter family and no one will ever question their right to hold a place in the Clave and to lead Gotham Institute. He was still a warrior. He was still his parents’ son. 

However, that meant that no one would ever forget the things he’s done as his mother’s son and the grandson of the demon. 

It will have to change eventually. He will prove to everyone that he was just as worthy to be Nephilim as he was to be prince of his grandfather’s court.  The Son of the Court of Shadows. 

 

\-----

 

“Damian?” 

Damian ignores his father’s eldest foundling and he slashes his blade through one of the training dummies. Just as quickly, he turns and throws several knives to the target on the other side of the room. When he swings his sword up from the ground, Grayson is there to block it with one of his escrima sticks. 

“Okay,” Grayson says with a grin. “I guess we’ll talk like this.” 

Damian huffs and tries a kick to Grayson’s wrist to disarm him but Grayson has already stepped back with an easy smile and counters with his own weapons. Damian brings his own sword to guard against the attack and glares at the other man. “What do you want, Grayson?” 

“I wanted to talk,” the older shadowhunter says, flipping away from one of Damian’s attacks with easy grace. “About you, about being a shadowhunter, fun stuff.” 

“A shadowhunter is a warrior,” Damian says. “I know how to be a warrior.” 

“It’s not just about being a warrior, Damian,” Grayson says as he moves in to disarm Damian but Damian steps away. He doesn’t like that his father’s foundlings match him in strength and speed despite all that his faerie heritage has gifted him with skills far beyond their ken. He believes it’s their runes, runes that his father still has not allow him to take up. 

“Then what, pray tell, is it about?” 

“It’s about being a protector, Damian. We protect the shadow world and you won’t get your runes until you realize that. Bruce would never move on that front. He’s very stubborn. You might have gotten that from him.” 

Damian glared at Grayson. “I know that not all Shadowhunters believe that and there are too few shadowhunters for the Clave to refuse one willing to fight for their cause. So, do not patronize me, Grayson. I will have my birthright. I will be a Shadowhunter.” 

 

\-----

 

One of the favorite things, one of the most precious thing Damian had in his grandfather’s court was his steed. While the court of shadows was not the wild hunt, Goliath still served faithfully at Damian’s side. Sometimes, Damian wonders why knowing what he did to the rest of the runt’s family. Then, he thinks of his own family and what they mean to him. 

The court of shadows was not one of the fey’s known courts. It was not the wild hunt either. It simply was, living in the shadows of both the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. It was something better, something that his grandfather had created for the sacred duty of restoring the earth and keeping its denizens, mundanes, downworlders, and nephilim alike from destroying it. 

It was Damian’s legacy, his birthright, and his home. 

It was his home and his family. It was only natural that he was so very willing to do everything that duty required of him to bring honor and glory to his mother and his grandfather. 

The Year of Blood. 

At the time, it was his greatest achievement. 

After he had come to his father’s home, found another place to call home, another creed to call his own, another people to call family, everything he knew was now a challenge to overcome. 

The Year of Blood, something to regret, something to atone for. Another thing for others to use to prove the taint that his angel blood carried, to prove that he was not truly nephilim, that he wasn’t really as good as his new family. 

It will have to change. 

 

\-----

 

Maya Ducard wants to kill him. It doesn’t bother Damian as much as it should to have another Shadowhunter so ready to spill his blood but it does bother him that she follows him on his atonement. 

Maya Ducard tells Damian of her father and he remembers the blood on his hand and how Morgan Ducard isn’t the only one that stains it. 

Maya doesn’t want to kill him right away. She wants to help him, to become his partner. He thinks of parabatais, of friends like the Grayson talks about them and wonders if it would be possible. 

The fae are very good with their illusions and it is unnerving to see an older version of themselves, darker and crueler and lost. Damian swears he would never be like that but still accepts that part of him, his mother’s blood, the grandson of demon. It would always be there just as the court’s songs would always sing in his veins. 

Sometimes, Damian wonders if he should never have left for the human world, should never have taken his runes, should have remained fey. But, then there are many things he would have never known. 

Maya Ducard is one of them. She isn’t a nobody as she claimed she was when they first met. She is his friend and perhaps, one day, his parabatai. 

 

\-----

 

“Oh, it’s you,” the green fire on Todd’s fingers die as he looks Damian over, waiting in his living room. “What do you want? They send you here for a favor?” 

Damian scoffs and crosses his arms over his chest. “I am no errand boy, Todd.” 

“Yeah but if Dickie asked you to do something, chances are you’d do it, right?” The warlock grins and shrugs his shoulders. “Don’t worry about it. Lots of people fall for his charms.” 

“I am not here for the Clave,” Damian says, glaring at the black mark of the voyance rune on the back of his hand. He clenched his hands into fists before meeting Todd’s strange too-bright eyes. The warlock never really did bother with a glamour. “I hear my mother has returned.” 

Todd busies himself with flipping through one of the books on his shelf. He leans back and stares at Damian. “What if she has?” 

“I do not want to see her,” Damian says. “Or have her interfere on what I am trying to accomplish.” 

“What are you trying to accomplish? I did hear you’ve been disappearing and the downworld’s been particularly noisy about stolen artifacts and powerful magics.” Todd arches one brow as he looks at Damian over the pages of his book. “And what makes you think I can stop Talia?” 

“She trained you.” 

The warlock snorts, returning the book back to the shelf. He crosses over until he is standing over Damian. “She didn’t train me. She brought me to people who could.” 

“I can only assume that you have remained in contact with her. You are a part of the Downworld after all.” 

“I think you’d know more than other people, demon spawn. The fey are more secretive than any other Downworlders.” Todd plops down on an armchair, sprawling with undignified grace and smirks at him. “And don’t think that I didn’t notice you avoiding the question about your little assignment. Doing something for the court of shadows?” 

“No,” Damian sets his jaw and glares at the warlock. “I am doing something to recompense my actions serving in the court of shadows.I will prove myself worthy of being a protector of this world.” 

 

\-----

 

Meeting Suren Darga is like meeting his past self, so self-assured, so damnably certain that they will earn their family’s approval with destruction. Maybe it was something that was bound to happen, a chance for Damian to return what has been given to him. 

The mundanes and their stories may believe the Seelie is the brighter and kinder court but it is also the court that produces monsters like the Lu’un Darga and their kin. But, Suren is a child just like Damian was a child just trying to earn their family’s approval.

“Make a choice, your choice,” Damian says as he reaches out to the Seelie boy and his flames lick at their hands and there is Goliath, trying to protect Damian as always, and Maya at his back. His mother and father are with him. He is reminded of every single thing he fights for, of the boy he once was and the boy he was still working to be. 

Their choices, Damian decides, should always belong to them. 

 

\-----

 

“Damian.” 

“Father,” Damian stands from his crouched position where he was trying to lace up his boots. He frowns at the worried expression on his father’s face and immediately stands up in attention. “Is there a problem?” 

Bruce shakes his head and lays his hand on Damian’s shoulder. “There is no problem,” he says. Damian is still frowning because there is still a look on his father’s face that he cannot decipher. When his father notices his look, Bruce smiles. It is a small smile but it is a smile nevertheless and a sincere one at that. Those are something Damian doesn’t normally on his father’s face. 

“Then what is it?” 

“Dick tells me that you might want for a parabatai, that you found one. I could arrange for the ceremony if you’d like.” 

“Oh,” Damian says in surprise and he has thought about it. He and Maya work well together and they will. “I’d have to ask her first.”

Bruce nods and before Damian could do anything else, his father pulls him into a hug. Just as quickly though, Bruce has stepped back. “I know I don’t say this enough, Damian, but I am proud of how far you’d come. The angel would be proud of you. I’m proud of you, son.” 

Damian smiles and pulls his father into a hug before he leaves the room. He needs to talk to Maya. He was going to meet her and Suren anyway in the Shadow Market for their patrol. This would be good. Everything was going to be good. 

 

\-----

 

“Why so sour, Damian?” Maya says as she pinches his cheek and stands beside him. “I thought you wanted an assignment where none of your family are watching? This is your chance.” 

Damian glares at his parabatai and huffs. “T-t, it would be better if you had agreed to come with me instead. Now, father is insisting I work with someone else.” 

“You are used to working with a partner. Your father. Dick. Me.” Maya smiles. “Why not another one?” 

“I don’t need another one.” 

“Well, you better get used to that one for now while I’m in Idris,” Maya teases. “Besides, I hear Jonathan Kent inherited his father’s unusual abilities. Raziel knows they’re considered one of the most powerful shadowhunter family. I thought you’d be happier.” 

Damian scoffs. “Please, the Waynes are better.” 

Maya laughs and shakes her head. “One day, I’m going to convince you and Suren to drop the whole my family is best act. For now, I need to talk to your brother about that portal to Idris and your new partner’s here.” 

Jonathan Kent looks at them from across the room and grins as he raises his hand for a wave. Damian sighs. Perhaps, he could make this work. He could learn to work people. He would have to if he would one day inherit his father’s legacy. 

They were shadowhunters, the hidden protectors of mankind. But, they never did it alone. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Decided to continue this au with this one. The Son of Batman movie was one of the first I've seen of this fandom and recently read Robin: Son of Batman. Hopefully, did okay with the characters in it and the way the story is told which is a sort of hodgepodge of scenes. Maybe someday I'll write a longer story for this au if I think of something. 
> 
> Thank you for everyone who read. Feedback is appreciated. Hope you all enjoyed it.


End file.
